Ben Richter - AUROGENY (2023) Hi-Res

The two and a half hours of accordion, string quartet, and ensemble music on Ben Richter’s Aurogeny, the 2CD follow-up to 2017’s acclaimed Panthalassa: Dream Music of the Once and Future Ocean, are united by a focus on acoustic phenomena to create immersive sound-worlds of constant gradual transformation. CD1 focuses entirely on Richter’s unique approach to the accordion, with solo and multitrack works exploring just intonation, detuning preparations, and sliding register shifts, seeking liminal zones between pitch and rhythm to stretch time perception beyond the human. CD2 begins with the Koan Quartet’s masterfully concentrated performance of Aurogeny, a geologically paced, timbrally morphing string quartet, until the striking instrumental menagerie of Orogenesis erupts in raucous, sprawling post-rock joy, followed by Tethyscape’s eerie, distorted doom-drone dive back into the deep dark sea.